Vehicle-dash



(NO Mod l A. LOBDELL.

' VEHICLE DASH.

No. 468,569. Patented Feb. 9, 1892.

H m w I My 964%. 646?; 2% m UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALONZO LOBDELL, OF RACINE, \VISOONSIN.

VEHICLE-DASH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 468,569, dated February9, 1892 Application filed January 29, 1890- SerialNo. 338,581. (Nomodel.)

T0 whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALONZO LOBDELL, of Racine,in the county of Racine,and in the State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Vehicle-Dashes; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.-

My invention relates to vehicle-dashes; and it consists in certainpeculiarities of construction, as will be fully set forth hereinafter,and subsequently claimed.

In the drawings, Figure l is a front elevation of a portion of themetallic frame of a vehicle-dash, showing my present means of attachmentof the feet thereto. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section thereof ontheline 2 2 of Fig. 1. Figs. 3 and at are detail sectional views atright angles to each other,

showing the preferred means of keeping the nut in place during shipmentor storage, as well as subsequently.

My presentinvention is in part an improvement on the devices shown in myprior patent, No. 241,147, dated May 10, 1881, and, like the frame shownin that patent, is designed to be similarly covered with a leatherdashcover 5 but the construction of the dash-frame and the means ofsecuring the same to a vehicle are different and constitute my presentimprovement, and hence I have only illustrated so much of my presentinvention as is new.

In my presentdash-frame the lower dash bar A is preferably formed solidor rigid with the end uprights B, all being preferablymade of malleableiron. The top dash-bar (not shown) may be made separate from the bottombar and end uprights and secured to the latter in any preferred mannerto complete the skeleton dash-frame, this forming no part of my presentinvention. Near each end of the said lower dash-bar A,I cut an oblongslot 0, the walls of which are beveled on the front side, as shown at aa, and mitered at the corners, while on the rear side the walls of saidslot are straight, as shown at b l).

D D represent my improved nuts, one designed to be used within each slot0. These nuts are made with a flat front face and on the rear side areformed with four beveled mitered faces 0 0, corresponding to the beveledwalls a a of the slot C and terminating in a short squared shank (Z,whose edgesjust fit within and correspond to the straight portions 1) ofthe walls of the said slot 0, and when the nut is in place within theslot it may be moved to either end thereof or to any point between, thesquared shank at, keeping the nut true, the face of the nut beingpreferably flush with the outer surface of the lower dash-bar A. The nutis provided with a central screw-threaded bore to receive a screw-bolt Epassing through a foot F, which latter may be of any shape or formpreferred and is provided with holes 6 e or other means of attachment tothe front portion of a vehicle.

My goods are preferably made and sold to the trade without the describedfeet F, which every vehicle-maker would have of a pattern to conform tohis different styles of Wagons, carriages, buggies, and other vehicles,and hence in shipping the goods and storing them the nuts would be veryapt to drop away from the slots and become lost, and, further, infitting the leather dash-covers to the frames the latter are usually ina vertical position, or nearly so, and the nuts liable to drop out inthe operation. To overcome these objections, I preferably employ thenut-guard G, (shown in Figs. 3 and 4,) consisting of a piece of thinsheet metal-such as tin-plateof a length cor responding to that of theslot 0 and bent around the lower dash-bars A, as shown, there being, ofcourse, a guard-plate G to each nut and slot. When the cover is to beapplied to the frame, the nut is readily moved to the desired point bymeans of an awl or. like tool inserted in the bore of said nut throughthe slot from the rear, and the frictional contact of the nut-guardagainst the face of the nut will hold the latter in the desired positionand will prevent the nut from ever becoming lost or slipping out ofplace, even if the screwbolt E should fall out at any time. The nut isof slightly-smaller diameter than that of the corresponding spacebetween the beveled Walls of the slot 0, so as to move easily in saidslot, and transversely the nut is of less depth than the thickness ofthe lower bar A of the dash-frame, so that the said nutcan be drawntight by the screw-bolt E in attaching the said frame to the feet F onthe vehicle. When the leather dash-cover is applied to the frame, thenuts and slots described are entirely covered and hidden from view.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination, with adash-framehaving an elongated slot near oneend of its lower bar, said slot having inwardly-beveled outer marginsand flat horizontal inner margins or rear walls, and a dasher-foothaving an eye in its upper end, of a bolt inserted rearwardly throughthe eye of the foot and extending into the slot, a squared tapering nutscrewed upon the stem of the bolt and lying within the outer side of theslot, said nut having beveled rear faces and a squared shank on its rearfitting closely between the rear flat walls of the slot, its end beingwithin the slot, and a guard bent around the front of the movable nutsfitted in said slots and guardplates bent around the front of the framefor preventing the falling out of said nuts and retaining them byfrictional contact at any point to which they may have been moved,substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand, atRacine, in the county of Racine and State of WVisconsin, in the presenceof two witnesses.

ALONZO LOBDELL.

WVitnesses:

ERASTUS G. PEOK,

ALBERT L. ANDERSON.

